


Kickin' and Screamin'

by Yappano



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/M, Friendship, Gen, mostly set in the academy years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-04 22:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15850365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yappano/pseuds/Yappano
Summary: In an unfortunate circumstance, Sakura loses her amazing chakra control. They say you shouldn't trade anything without getting something of equal or greater value. If Sakura could look back on this instance, she would be certain that she bagged something greater.Sure, she has hardships, but isn't this all just part of that fantastic thing they call youth?





	1. A Slap in the Face

Out of nowhere, the illness swept through her body like electricity. There was a momentary blind panic, her movements flinging herself out of bed. She tumbled down with her blankets wrapped around her, constricting her movement. She screamed.

She spent the next week in the hospital. Her parents visited daily, coddling her with things from home to make her feel comfortable. She didn’t feel comfortable at all, though. Apart from the fever that would come in spurts, there was a dull ache all over her body. She didn’t know what it was. The nurses kept glancing at her with some emotion in their eyes she couldn’t read, but it made her heart ache as well.

Ino visited three times, after classes let out for the day, and she would recount what happened and pass over the homework. While Sakura couldn’t do any physical work, she wasn’t going to fall behind in the menial paper work and readings. They would talk for an hour or four before Ino would run home for dinner.

The day Sakura was released was the day her world crashed around her.

She was only nine years old when she was told her chakra coils had collapsed and it was likely she would never be able to use chakra like she had before.

Sakura reluctantly returned to the Academy by the next Monday. She walked with her mother and arrived an hour early to meet with her instructor. Iruka spoke with her mother while Sakura kicked her feet around, staring at the floor. After what seemed like forever filled with a lot of information that made her heart feel like it was being wrenched from her body and empty platitudes, he asked Mebuki to leave the room, so he could speak with Sakura privately. Sakura bid her goodbye half-heartedly.

Once Mebuki closed the door behind her, Iruka left out a quiet sigh.

“Sakura-chan, I’m sorry for what you’re going through,” he began, his voice soft. She didn’t want to look up. She already knew her future was all washed up. She didn’t want to hear it again. “I’m not quite sure what I can say to make you feel better because this is a very stressful situation for you.”

Sakura teared up, brushed her hair out of her face and sniffled. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, Sakura-chan, and it’s okay to know that.”

Sakura’s bottom lip wobbled, and she was certain she was going to cry if he talked anymore about this. She didn’t want to cry before class because everyone would know and even though no one really picked on her anymore, she was sure that any sign of weakness would cause them to start lobbing stones at her again.

“Okay, Iruka-sensei,” she just said, looking down. “Can we not talk about this, though?”

Iruka sighed again. With a mouth set in a tight line, he nodded. “Alright. Then do you mind if we talk about your future instead?”

She really did mind, but at least she could distance herself from that idea. The future was so far away. She could think about it seriously some other time. She nodded in response to her teacher because even if they didn’t talk about this now, they would have to talk about it sometime soon and she figured it would be better to get it out of the way.

“I’ll be frank with you. It will be very hard to continue being a ninja going forth.“

Sakura’s blood turned to ice. She decided no, she could not handle this right now. Sure, she kind of understood the implications of it all, but hearing it in plain terms from her teacher was a slap in the face. It did not even compare. So, to help herself mentally, to help herself to not cry, she tuned him out and just nodded along to his entire spiel about her options and screamed in her head.

After the one-sided talk, Sakura blandly responded that she’ll think about it. They ended up walking to class together and Iruka stood back to let Sakura enter the class alone as to not garner even more interest than the sick week she just had to take off would amount to.

Sakura steeled her nerves before walking into the already bustling classroom. She looked around, spotted Ino in her usual spot, and waved. Ino, who was talking calmly to another girl, noticed immediately and brightened.

“Sakura!” She waved her over, pointing Sakura to sit in the empty seat next to her. Sakura wondered if Ino saved a seat for her every day the past week just in case. She wouldn’t put it past her best friend.

They chatted amicably for a few moments, both ignoring any and all pointed stares in their direction. Sakura knew that some of her classmates wanted in on why she was off for so long, but she hoped if she didn’t say anything, they would come to the conclusion that it was just a normal illness or a broken something or other.

Iruka walked into the class and started a lecture so Ino decided to continue their conversation via notes. Sakura was glad for the normalcy. But she knew it wouldn’t last and decided that at the end of the day, she would tell Ino exactly what had happened. She shouldn’t hide anything from her.

It was after class and Sakura and Ino were just leaving the building for the day when Sakura pulled her aside. They stood under the large tree in the field in front of the building and Sakura spilled all the details.

Ino was a very intelligent child. It was a different intelligence than Sakura’s book smarts, but it was just as strong. She was good at dealing with people and problems and she didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. However, when Sakura told her what had happened, she couldn’t help herself from crying. That reaction made Sakura cry as well.

Sakura didn’t like crying in front of Ino and she hated seeing Ino cry even more than that. She had barely ever seen that. With every affirmation that things would be changing around her, Sakura’s heart sank deeper.

Sakura told Ino that she probably wasn’t going to continue being at the academy anymore. And that meant she wasn’t going to be able to be with Ino all the time anymore and she wasn’t going to be able to help the village and she was so sad.

Ino grabbed her in response and Sakura stopped talking as she was enveloped in a very tight hug. They hugged for a long time.

After some time, Ino gripped Sakura’s shoulders and pulled her away, staring intensely. “We’re still gonna be friends, I hope you realize. We’ll hang out after school and go shopping and – and we’ll talk about boys!”

In Sakura’s gut, she was certain Ino also liked the boy that she liked – Sasuke. But that was drama for another day. Especially since now she was certain that she was out of the running. Sure, Sasuke was said to like pretty girls, but does he like civilians? But what did that really matter now?

Sakura’s brow furrowed, her lips pursed, and she nodded resolutely. “Ino, we’ll be friends forever no matter what.”

After a moment of staring at each other, Ino’s eyes started watering up again which caused Sakura to start crying a little more. They laughed awkwardly a little bit and Ino asked if Sakura wanted to go to a café they liked so they could eat away their feelings. Sakura declined, not feeling too hungry. She had a lot to think about anyways and if this was her last day as a student here, she wanted to say goodbye to the building.

Ino thought about this for a moment and then excused herself with a smile.

“I’ll, um, I’ll see you around, then?”

“If I don’t see you in a few days, I’ll break into your house just to see your face,” Sakura responded, earning a snort from Ino. They waved goodbye and Ino left the courtyard, heading home.

Sakura was left alone with her thoughts and to wave away the dark cloud so she could deal with them one at a time, she turned back towards the academy and began to pace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't reread Naruto since it ended sans some chapters, so if this doesn't make sense... just pretend this is an AU where it does.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! I just kept writing all night long because I was enjoying it.


	2. Running Ragged

Classes at the academy rarely intermingled with others. Each class had blocked out schedules of who was using what classroom, gymnasium, or outdoor space and for what reason. Even lunch and recesses were separated.

After school was the time to see friends in other classes, if you were even able to make friends with older and younger students. The most likely scenario for this happening was siblings sticking together.

With that in mind, Sakura’s chance with brushing past the older kids was very slim. It was just luck and emotions that kept her wondering the grounds after saying goodbye to Ino. She had to decide what she wanted to do. She was given a few options, with the most reasonable one being prioritized by the adults in her life.

But it wasn’t that simple.

She had a dream. Her best friend was here. The boy she liked was here. She didn’t want to give up and put all the progress of being a better, more confident person to waste.

She finished a lap around the ground floor corridor and was about to turn around and pace again before finally giving up on thinking for the day and going home when she heard something.

She peered out of the nearest doorway, curious and wary. Who was around the academy at this time of the day? It was nearly evening!

The door lead to one of the training grounds that was behind the building. They used it mostly to run laps and increase their endurance. Sakura didn’t like running that much, so this place held some exhausting feelings.

She shook her head from her thoughts and twisted her head around, looking for the source of the noise. And there he was.

A young boy was running a lap, completely covered in sweat… and tears?

He was crying as he ran, panting heavily.

She felt like she could relate to those feelings right now.

He kind of looked weird and Sakura didn’t know if she should talk to him, but then Ino popped into her head. And she knew that she should try because what if Ino thought she looked weird and decided not to talk to her? Then where would she be?

“Excuse me,” she started, walking out into the field. The boy immediately stopped running and opening stared at her.

And stared.

“Um, are you okay?”

“Ah, um!” He yelled out, remembering himself. He raised his hands and wiped his face as dry as he could possibly make it before fidgeting at bit. “Yes, I’m okay! Do you need something?” He was blushing.

“Uh, okay,” she said to herself. If he didn’t want to talk about why he was crying, she wasn’t going to push it. And she couldn’t infer why from just this. Unless it was something about him not running fast enough in class, but he was definitely faster than anyone in her class. “What are you doing? School is over, I mean.”

“I’m, uh, training,” he said with a grin, but it looked like it was crossed with a grimace.

“Do you not run enough in class?” He looked older than her, so she assumed he was a year or two ahead of her. They should be focusing more time on physical exercises than the younger years, so she would be surprised if his teacher was holding them back.

“We run enough, but I need to do more. I need to be better.”

“Why?”

“I… I have a dream, so I must work hard to reach it.” He was looking away from her now, off into some distance that she could not see. She hummed in response, thinking for a moment to herself.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” She said. He looked at her, confusion painted on his face. Sakura grimly smiled, walked up to him, and held out her hand. “I’m Sakura Haruno, a third year. What’s your name?”

He looked stumped, but then grinned and took her hand with a large sweep of his arm. His eyes were full of glee. His hand was full of sweat. Gross. “I’m Rock Lee! I’m a fourth year!”

“What’s your dream?”

“I want to become a great ninja,” he said, releasing her hand. He turned away and fettered for a moment before deciding on something and turned back. “I may not be good at using my chakra, but I will try regardless by doing what I can.”

“Oh, that’s“–basically the same as her –“a very good dream.”

He looked embarrassed. “Thank you.”

She looked at his face, peering at his puffy eyes and tear tracks which betrayed his now happier visage. It was a good dream, but it was a very hard dream. “It’s hard, huh?”

Lee stared at her.

“You said that earlier,” he responded. “Do you have troubles, too?”

He was very precise in his reading of her and Sakura flinched.

“Um, yes,” she plainly said. Her eyes began to burn. “Today, I was told I should probably quit by my teacher.”

Lee’s brows furrowed. “Do you want to?”

“No," she responded softly, but then it bubbled up and she repeated herself with more confidence. "No, I don't!”

“Then don’t!” He clenched his fists and pulled them up. “You can work hard, too, Sakura-chan!”

Sakura looked at him, surprised. He was being completely genuine. It wasn’t better or worse to how Ino made her feel when she told her. It felt comfortable and sad at the same time. Could she? Should she try?

“I…” She cut herself off, hesitating for a moment. “I guess I can. I have been. It just seems so much harder now and no one thinks I should. They say I could get hurt.”

“I think it’s important to be safe, but if you’re giving up something you don’t want to give up… I think that’s not safe for you either,” Lee immediately responded, fire still burning in his eyes. He seemed to have thought a lot about this subject.

“Okay,” Sakura said after a moment of thought. A light smile colored her lips. Lee’s face colored a bit as well, but she didn’t notice, stuck in her own thoughts. “Okay, I won’t quit.”

“We can train together!” Lee supplied quickly, his smile gone. He seemed earnest in a different way. “I think, I think it would be good for the both of us. We can drive each other to do our best!”

Sakura’s smile grew and she nodded. “Okay! That sounds good. I, uh, I have to go now, Lee-kun!” He blushed. “I have to see if my teacher is still here. I want to talk to him. I’ll see you, tomorrow?”  
“Tomorrow? Oh, that sounds good! I’ll meet you here after school, okay?”

“Okay! Thank you, thank you so much!” Sakura bowed at the waist, and then turned and ran off with a wave. “Bye bye!”

“Bye!” Lee said, waving back. He clutched his hand by his heart and was definitely blushing.


	3. Pack a Punch

Sakura practiced her kata on the standard academy punched alongside of Lee. She wasn't as fast as him, but he kept peeking over at her with a smile, so she could only assume she was doing well. As he said, you don't start as a master. 

She had been doing this for a few weeks now, three times a week. They would run, go through some reps, and practice some moves with dummies. They first planned to add sparring in there, but after one fight, they realized how in over her head Sakura was. They decided to hold off for a while on that front.

It wasn’t that Lee was amazing at fighting because he wasn’t really, but it was on Sakura because she never put her physical fitness as a priority. She just didn’t have the endurance to fight for long periods of time. She was good with tests and papers and she used to be good with chakra control. They hadn’t gone too far with using it in class, but Sakura had shown she had an aptitude in it. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that skill anymore, so she had to persevere with what she did have. Like Lee!

Speaking of friends, Ino was so happy the Tuesday morning following the news when Sakura met her at her house to walk to the academy together. She was so happy she screamed and tackled her for hug. It seemed that Sakura’s entire being shone bright with a new purpose. Ino was badgering her for what happened, and Sakura easily supplied all the answers.

She told Ino that she bumped into an older boy at the academy who had similar problems to her and he gave her good advice. After a moment, Ino asked if he was hot causing Sakura to laugh. He was cute in his own (intense) way, she responded. She spent the rest of the class casually peering out the window, wondering if she’d be lucky to spot him out in the courtyard during one of his classes.

It didn’t happen, so Sakura decided to just drag Ino along with her to the first session.

Immediately after class ended, Sakura pulled Ino to the second floor hallway that sat along the field that Sakura was going to meet Lee at. She noticed that Lee was already waiting. He was glancing around almost constantly, probably looking for her. She didn’t want to keep him waiting anymore, so she just pointed at him. “That’s Lee-kun.”

Ino’s eyes furrowed a bit when Sakura pointed him out from afar, but after less than a second, she nodded. “I trust him,” she explained with a smile. “Introduce me!”

Sakura smiled. “Okay!”

The two girls wondered down the stairs and out into the open air. Sakura waved at Lee who was looking at Ino, confusion painting his expression. He looked at Sakura for answers. They stopped walking a few feet away from him. Sakura said a quick greeting and then introduced them.

“This is my best friend, Ino,” Sakura said to Lee, gesturing to Ino. She then turned towards Ino and gestured to Lee. “This is my new friend, Lee-kun.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ino said, a smirk on her face. Sakura supposed Ino was layering on her tough, cool attitude to test Lee’s conviction. Or something. Sakura wasn’t worried. Lee was a good person.

“It’s nice to meet any friend of Sakura’s as well!” Lee bellowed, bowing suddenly and repeatedly. Ino flinched back a bit in surprise.

Ino and Sakura shared a look. Sakura laughed nervously and stepped forward, patting Lee’s shoulder. “You don’t have to be so nervous, Lee-kun! Ino is very nice!”

“Ah, right!” He said, straightening up. He still seemed a bit worried, but he laughed awkwardly to try to hide it. “Sorry, I don’t have many friends – I mean, I –“

“It’s fine. Sakura didn’t have any friends before me, too,” Ino said, faking a serious voice, but then turned with a smile and poked an elbow into Sakura’s ribs. Sakura squeaked out an indignant “hey!”, but they both ended up laughing.

Lee stared at them, unsure of how to act.

“What I mean,” Ino said, breathless from the giggles, “is that you’re my friend now, too, so you can’t say that anymore. Don’t worry about it.”

Lee’s eyes looked like they were glittering. “Oh!”

Ino just smiled and waved at the two. “In any case, you two have fun. I have to go home and train with my dad and Shikamaru and Chouji and their dads.” As she listed out the people, her voice dragged more and more. “It’ll be such a bore probably compared to what you guys will be doing,” she said, groaning. Ino has griped about those boys many times.

Lee perked up, though. He knew how to talk about this topic. “Any training will be good, Ino-chan! I wish you the best of luck. Maybe next time you can join us.”

“Definitely!” Ino promised as she walked away, but Sakura wasn’t so sure she would. That was okay. Ino’s talents were spread away from taijutsu. It wasn’t that she was bad at it, definitely not, but she had clan techniques and her persuasive tongue. It didn’t feel like an Ino thing to do to work herself into a sweaty puddle. 

Actually, it wasn’t a Sakura thing to do until yesterday, either, so maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to judge. However, she did have a reason for it that Ino did not. She didn’t want to call it desperation, but it kind of was. It was mostly hope, though. She could label the desperation as just a pinch of the concoction.

Lee and Sakura started the first session with talking about what they were going to do and then following suit and doing it. Training and training and more training. They went home when it started to get dark, but Sakura had to stop training way before that. She was absolutely wiped out so early.

Every day she tried and succeeded in just working a little bit harder, a little bit longer. Lee was a new inspiration. He just kept moving on and on. She wasn’t sure what fueled him, but she supported him. When he said that they would do a certain number of pushups, he would do his best. If he couldn’t complete that set, he would start something different. Sakura would cheer him on when she herself got too tired to continue.

The gossip mill moved quickly, and the news spread that Sakura’s chakra was now defunct. From what she heard, not all they were saying was true, but she gave up trying to find out how the fake information even came into existence. Ino told her to ignore it all otherwise she would run herself into the mud worrying about it.

That said, she couldn’t ignore it all. Sakura’s mind wasn’t as strong as Ino’s, she supposed.

And some of it hurt. Especially when it was ribbing on how she couldn’t be a real ninja now.

She guessed all the troubles came with the territory of persevering.

She persevered through another meeting with Iruka on how she was going to continue her schooling, she perseveres during chakra exercises in class, she will persevere through her classmates talk. Hopefully. She’s still working on it and it’s all very stressful still.

Iruka seem conflicted on her decision, but overwhelmingly supportive of his students’ decisions like he usually is. Supportive to a fault, sometimes, but nobody is perfect, and she’ll take it over a teacher who would make it harder on her and make her want to quit. Iruka doesn’t make it harder, but he also doesn’t make it easier. Which is fine, but also worrying because it’s making her grades slip. 

She’s falling behind on the exercises and on the worksheets sometimes. They get really tough to do after she’s training with Lee because all she wants to do is go home, take a shower, and sleep. She ends up scribbling out answers in the morning as she rushes to get ready.

She used to wake up early and primp and preen herself to look pretty for herself and for Sasuke, but her body aches at the excess exercise she’s putting it through, she has to try a lot harder for less output in class, and people just keep whispering about how she’s going to drop out soon, just watch and see. She sleeps in to take all she can get and to wipe away any stresses the best she can. She eats more because she is hungry. She gains weight because she eats. She’s stressed because she gained weight.

It’s a cycle and the stress must show because her parents keep asking: “Are you sure you want to continue, honey?” and that’s grating because she wants them to support her and she knows they do in their own way, but it’s still all terrible.

All in all, Sakura is very frustrated most of the time.

In any case, that is all then and this is now. She is training, she is attacking the punching bag over and over. Left punch, right punch, again and again and again until her hands hurt and past it. She has to keep up. Tears welled up in her eyes from the pain, but she kept going. Lee can keep going, she can keep going, she must keep going! If she doesn’t keep going, she won’t be a good ninja!  
Her hands hurt, though. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt!

She didn't realize she stopped and was crying until she felt Lee's hand on her back. She crumpled into herself, squatting down. Lee followed. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him over own tears. And she didn't even want to. She was tired and has had a couple of rough weeks and Lee is always going to be fifty thousand steps ahead of her.

"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Lee's voice cut into her thoughts finally. She turned towards him and shoved him away. He tumbled onto his butt in surprise and just sat there.

"Don't!" She yelled. "It's not fair!"

Lee stared at her, hurt and very much confused. Sakura started wailing again. She pressed her hands into her face, not wanting to look at the boy who has been nothing but kind to her.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, standing up again. He stepped in front her and grabbed her hands, gently peeling them away from her wet face, but holding them firm enough that she would have trouble tugging them away. He turned them over and glanced at her knuckles. "You are bleeding," he said, matter-of-factly. His face was serious for a moment and he glanced up at her tearful eyes. Then he smiled. "It'll be okay, Sakura-chan. This is only a scrape!"

Sakura's eyes widened at his touch and then his words. Sakura realized Lee had a really nice smile. It was a winning smile and it made her feel good and bad at the same time. Sakura's eyes teared up again and she bit her lip for a moment to keep the tears at bay. She looked down at her hands that were still being cradled.

"I’m sorry," she mumbled.

“Don’t be,” Lee said. He repositioned his hands to grasp her by the wrists and pulled her up from her squatting position.

“But I am,” she said. She pulled her hands away from his and he let her go easily. She used one hand to cradle the other. She eyed them warily. There wasn’t a lot of blood, but almost every knuckle was scraped and bruised. “I’m sorry. I’m just very stressed about a lot of things.”

Lee just hummed in response. They stood there silently for a moment and Sakura was going to excuse herself to the corridor lining the field. Nearly every hallway in the academy had a first aid kit attached to the wall. The longer you stayed at the academy, the more likely you were going to have to use it sometime or another. Sakura had yet to ever use it on herself, but she was given the rundown on how to use the items inside during class.

“The day you meet me, you said that what I was doing was hard,” Lee suddenly said, gaining her full attention. “That is very true. I have never been able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu. They say my chakra control is some of the worst they’ve seen.” He laughs pitifully but continues speaking with conviction a moment later. “But I don’t want to give up.”

Sakura nodded. Lee’s endurance towards hardships was one of his main highlights.

“I’ve heard some things about you from my classmates,” he said, looking away from her. Sakura’s face dropped. Oh, of course he would have heard some things. As much as their classes exist in a bubble, it’s easy for forget far how word travels. She wondered what he heard. “You and I – we’re different.”

Sakura grimaced. She didn’t want to be told that. She was working hard with him because she felt kinship with his difficulties. She didn’t want to be othered by him. She wanted them to inspire each other.

“But we’re not that different,” Lee said with a newfound grin. It was brighter than any of his smiles before and it made Sakura feel light. “It’s going to be rough. I cry, too, Sakura-chan. But if we keep fighting together, we’ll go far, right?”

Sakura’s mouth dropped for a moment, before she couldn’t help herself from grinning back. She lightly wiped the tears that were still sitting her face off with one of her palms and she nodded several times. Lee continued speaking, thrusting his fist into the air.

“And we’ll show all those who doubted us that they are wrong!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spite against his classmates and trying to impress Sakura is what fuels Lee. Sakura keeps getting impressed by his fortitude and wants to impress him back one day. Unbeknownst to her, she already completed that goal.
> 
> He also thinks she very pretty, so she shouldn't worry about how much time she allots to prettying herself up. You don't have to try so hard on that, Sakura!


	4. A Squabble

The last day of her fourth year came before she knew it. She was dreading the day since the first signs of spring started appearing. The dread came even though her birthday was coming up and she’d finally turn eleven and soon her last year of school would fly buy and she would take the first steps of being an adult. A lot of good came with time moving forward.

The problem was Lee was leaving. His graduation was coming up. He was allowed to graduate even though he couldn’t pass the final exam since he showed some skill in the other areas. That gave Sakura hope for the hurdle she would also have to jump over. No giving up now!

She went to meet Lee at his classroom as the day went to a close. She knew the newly formed teams would be waiting to meet their new teachers. She just hoped his teacher was late. She walked to the open door and peered into the classroom, somewhat shy at being around newly minted genin. She noticed Lee right away thankfully. He was standing off to the side with two other people. Sakura paid them no mind and waved Lee over.

He noticed her, gave a quick goodbye to the people, and ran to her. He stepped outside the door to greet her and Sakura heard a distinct “ooh”ing from several of his peers before Lee slid the door close with a snap. She was embarrassed, but Lee grabbed her full attention with a smile.

“Sakura-chan! I am glad to see you!”

“Me, too. I just wanted to wish you luck before you leave with your team.”

“Hehe,” Lee smiled. “Thank you!”

“It’ll be tough out there, but I’ll be rooting for you.”

“I’ll be rooting for you, too!” He said and shuffled his feet. “You won’t have me as a sparring partner anymore.”

“Yeah,” Sakura nodded, going quiet for a moment. “We may not have talent, but as long as we keep moving, we’ll break through, right?” She was just repeating a mantra he’d say when things got tough. “I think we’ll both be fine, together or apart.”

Lee grinned. “Yes!” He paused. “You know, you-“

“Lee,” a voice called from the classroom. A girl slid the door open, peeking out at them. “Sorry to interrupt, but he’s here.”

“Oh? Alright,” Lee said, with a nod. He turned back to Sakura and flashed her one last bright grin. “I will see you later!”

“Bye!” Sakura said, watching him go back into his classroom. She stood there for a moment and then turned around to walk away. Ino was waiting for her back in the classroom. They were going to celebrate the start of spring break together by having a sleepover. Ino’s parents OK-ed it to be at her house.

The moment Sakura turned around, though, she found Ino, standing at the end of the hallway, watching her. Sakura tensed, not expecting this.

“Yes?” She asked. Ino had told her she would wait. Now here she was, probably spying.

“Nothing, I just got bored of waiting,” Ino said, nonchalantly. She threw her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “Let’s go!”

Sakura eyed Ino for a second, suspicious, but finally dropped it and shrugged. “Okay.”

They stopped off at the market because Sakura was intending to buy a lot of snacks, especially ones her mom didn’t like her eating too much of. Ino looked around, pointed out some things, but mostly let Sakura choose. On their way to Ino’s house, Sakura was starting to get suspicious again over how quiet Ino was. She didn’t have to bring it up, though, because Ino finally blurted out what she was thinking.

“He likes you, you know?”

“Huh?” What was she talking about? Oh. Wait. Lee, of course. Sakura looked away from Ino, blush lightly coloring her cheeks. “I, uh,” she smartly began with a small frown. “Yeah, I know.”

Ino just watched her without saying anything so Sakura decided to continue. What are friends for if not to embarrass you and then make you tell them all your dark secrets? The upside is that they love you and give you advice. Ino is notoriously good at giving advice.

“Sometimes it felt like I was taking advantage of him,” Sakura said, demurely. She shrugged her shoulders. It wasn’t on purpose if she was, but he was so nice to her all the time. Maybe it was because he was a nice guy, but maybe it was because he liked her. And if she didn’t like him back, but kept taking up his time, was she taking advantage of him?

“Were you, though?” Ino laughed.

“Hm?”

“From my perspective, he gained a lot by being your friend, Sakura. Don’t worry about that kind of thing.” Ino smiled. “I was just thinking his crush was cute. I didn’t mean for you to get all philosophical.”

“Ino….” Sakura groaned. “I give you my heart just so you can make fun of me.”

Ino just laughed in response and grabbed Sakura’s hand as she tried to swat at her. She didn’t let go and pulled a confused Sakura along into an alley way and out the other side. She pointed at a small store at the end of the street corner. The display was full of crepes.

“It was on the way,” she said with a shrug when Sakura looked at her accusingly. “You know you want one.” They each bought a fruit filled crepe (Ino’s treat) and continued walking leisurely towards Ino’s home.

“I think I’m gonna miss seeing him around,” Ino said. “He certainly had a”-she waved her free hand around in front of her and made a strange noise in the back of her throat-“sort of energy. Like his presence made you want to try hard?”

“Yeah,” Sakura agreed. “He was a good inspiration.”

“Was? You’re not gonna see him anymore?” Ino asked. “I mean, I probably won’t see him much because we just never clicked that well.” Ino shrugged noncommittedly. “I mean, he’s nice, but I have other priorities than working my butt off.”

Sakura just looked at her plainly.

“What? It’s true!” Ino defended herself weakly. “Anyways, you two were close. Was graduation the final destined meeting?”

“Well, no,” Sakura slowly said. “But he’s going to be busy now, so we probably won’t see each other often. He has missions, we have school. You know? Life.”

Ino hummed. “Life, huh?” Sakura nodded. They both walked in silence, enjoying their snack.

“I’m sure we’ll see each other soon. Maybe he’ll even train with me and show me what his teacher is teaching him,” Sakura presented with a smile.

“That’d give you a one up in class. Maybe you’d be able to disengage dog breath in a spar. You’d think Iruka admonishing him for not using standard moves would stop him from moving so wildly, but no. He just keeps going.”

Sakura sighs. “Yeah… Although he’s very annoying, I guess that’s commendable in its own right? You stick with what you know?”

“Ew, Sakura! Don’t defend him!”

“I’m not! I’m just saying!”

Ino just laughed at Sakura. “I see your taste in boys has changed. I guess now I can have Sasuke no problem.” She made a cute pose.

“Ah, so that was your goal!” Sakura brought a fist up to her face. “You were trying to woo me to Lee so you had no competition! Hah, at least I know that you think I have the chance to beat you.”

Ino was laughing along but stopped at Sakura’s last statement. She raised a brow. “Of course, I think that, Sakura. You’re beautiful. Be more confident. Sasuke would be lucky to have you.”

Sakura wasn’t expecting that.

“But Sasuke would be stupid to not pick me.”

Ah, there it is.

“Haha, yeah right!”

After meeting Lee and going through a lot of hardships, she came to understand that Ino liked Sasuke a lot, too. Sasuke was mysterious and cool. He had good grades and was always prepared. What was not to like about him?

Sakura ended up sitting Ino down and they had a long talk about it. Sakura had already had a lot of stressful things happen to her and she didn’t want anything to come between her and her best friend. After it was all said and done, Ino just smiled at her.

“Then, we’ll be rivals,” she stated calmly. “And friends.”

Sakura nodded. No matter what happened in the end, they would stick together. And they did. At this point, though, her crush on Sasuke was more of a fun pastime than anything serious. She didn’t have time to pretty herself up as much. She still definitely conditioned her hair and wore lip gloss and just had fun pampering and being herself, but she had to spend more time sweating it all off just to keep up.

And so, maybe it was true and her taste in boys was changing or something like that. Maybe she was just putting Sasuke aside for now and would go back when she felt she was stronger. None of that really mattered, though, because Sakura had a goal now for the sake of her rivalry.

She was going to one up Ino whether Ino liked it or not. They are rivals now, so she wasn’t going to give up so easily. If that meant getting Sasuke one day, then so be it. If it didn’t, well that was okay, too. He was just a boy. Ino, meanwhile, was her best friend.

She shook herself of her thoughts and turned to Ino with a smirk.

“First one to your house gets to give the other a make-over.”

Ino knew what that meant. The winner would cake on makeup and tie up hair to make the ugliest look on the loser possible. Ino shuddered, then glared.

“You’re on!”

Sakura took off running before Ino even finished. She proceeded to trip and spill the rest of the contents of her crepe everywhere. Ino laughed so hard she had to stop running. They were both losers that day. That was fine by them. They nearly gave Ino’s dad a heart attack when he entered her room to call them down to dinner and they were looking hideous. He made them eat with it all on and wouldn’t stop cracking up at the dinner table.

It was good. Sakura was happy with her life. This was going to be a great year.


	5. Blow Out

The first time she saw Lee after graduation was only three weeks after they said their goodbyes. It wasn’t even a planned meeting. Her mom kicked her out of the house to go grocery shopping and she saw him on the way to the market near their home.

He had cut his hair from the long braid to a shoulder length style just before graduation. She praised it, saying it marked the beginning of a new journey. However, he seemed to have cut it again. His headband still parted his bangs apart like before, but it was now short in the back. She wondered if he had another life changing event happened between her last seeing him.

She was going to stop him to talk, but her mom had a time limit, so she ran off. For now.

Sakura was going to find him again soon and make him spill how his life is. She didn’t know where he lived, but she was sure if she kept an eye out, she’d find him again.

It didn’t take long for them to bump into each other again, if you could call it “bumping into”. Lee seemed to be looking for her because he was standing outside the academy entrance. School had recently started again and as it was their final year, they had a lot more work to do. Sakura had stayed behind with Ino to practice some forms a little while longer.

The moment Lee saw her, he ran up to her.

“Sakura-chan!”

“Lee-kun!” Sakura responded in kind. She was surprised to see him. “What’re you doing here? I missed you!”

“I missed you, too! I’m here,” he paused, “because I don’t know where you live. I wasn’t sure how to find you.”

Ah, she had the same problem. Sakura laughed.

“Yeah, I was having trouble, too. We should have set that up while we were saying our goodbyes in March.”

Ino walked up, lazily eavesdropping from behind. She grabbed Sakura’s shoulder and leaned in. Sakura immediately tensed. “Aw, what is this? A date?”

“Ino!” She felt scandalized. 

Lee began to blush immediately and backed away, throwing his arms up in a defensive position. “No, no, no way!”

She just groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, before looking up at Ino with a challenging glare. “If meeting up with a boy is called a date, I hope you have a very romantic evening with Shikamaru and Chouji tonight.”

“Yuck!” Ino stuck her tongue out at Sakura.

“You’re gonna smooch them so much, aren’t ya?”

“Sakura, you’re going to make me throw up.” Ino play gagged and then began to shakily walked off backwards into the distance as if she was mortally wounded. “I don’t want to go to train with them even more now. You’ve wounded me. Bleh.”

Sakura and Lee watched Ino turn down the road as she narrated her thoughts. It was quite silly in Sakura’s opinion, but she wasn’t going to break character until Ino was out of sight. When she was, she heard Ino make a loud laugh in the distance and then snorted, barking out her own laugh.

“Come on,” Sakura said with a few giggles painting her voice. She turned to Lee and gestured him to follow. “I’ll show you to my house!”

It wasn’t until they walked down the street for a minute or two, headed towards Sakura’s home, that Lee spoke his mind. It wasn’t as if it was an uncomfortable silence, but Sakura was glad for conversation.

“That was,” Lee said, pausing to think of a word, “quite a harsh back and forth, Sakura-chan.”

“Hm? Oh, no way!” Sakura smiled, kind of embarrassed. “No, we badger each other all the time. It’s just fun. Don’t worry, we don’t mean each other harm. It’s like, how would you say?” She crossed her arms, thinking. “We have a sort of rivalry that is unique to us. We push each other to go far and have fun goading each other.”

She stopped walking, causing him to stop as well. She looked at Lee, completely serious suddenly.

“I would die for Ino, though. She’s my best friend.”

Lee’s eyebrows knit down as he was thinking. She thought he was coming to an understanding before she really thought about her words. She kind of implied that she liked Ino more there, didn’t she? Oops! It wasn’t like that. She just liked them differently. She stepped forward to walk side by side with him again, ready to fix her blunder.

“Just like you,” she added with a light smile. Sakura never really called Lee her best friend before, but if she quantified how much impact he made in her life and how much she enjoyed being around him, she really should have.

Lee was looking at her with his own smile now, so she felt the mission was accomplished.

“Oh, and since we’re best friends,” Sakura mentioned the moment it occurred to her. “Call me Sakura now! I’ll call you Lee, okay?” She gave him a bright smile. It was kind of awkward, after a few years of using -kun, but it fit well.

“Ah, okay. Um, Sakura!”

Lee made a big deal about it, saying it a few times before it felt right to him. Sakura laughed and repeated his name a few times. He then smiled shyly. It made Sakura feel shy, too, so she changed the topic.

“So! Ahem, how has life as a genin been treating you so far? I see you got another haircut!”

“Ah,” he responded, brushing his hand through the short, chopped hair on the back of his head. “It has been… quite a challenge, actually.”

His voice was quiet. Sakura wondered how much he was holding in. It made her wonder if she should have stopped him a few weeks ago when she saw him in the market. She felt kind of bad now.

“But now, I have found that my dream only grows with the more hardships I face,” he said, a light smile dusting his face. Sakura stared, not sure if she should ask for specifics. She didn’t have to wait long for an explanation, though. Lee faced forward and began to talk about his teammates, one of whom was so far an unobtainable goal, and about how hard his teacher pushed him.

He was still talking when they reached her house, so she invited him in and her mom made them some snacks while they hung out in her room (“Door stays open, Sakura.”) as friends, not as training partners.

That said, Lee did invite Sakura to train with him over the weekend and Sakura took the chance. She missed Lee and she also missed how much he pushed her.

Time flew by like this with them meeting up every now and then, filling in some spots of free time with each other. Sometimes it was to hang out, sometimes it was to train. Ino joined every now and then but complained about feeling like a third wheel one time when she had Sakura alone, so she stopped showing up as more time passed. She had her own training schedules to follow as well, so Sakura understood.

Then came graduation day. Sakura was able to take a different exam than her peers. It was a whole process of several teachers looking over her accomplishments and abilities and she was pretty sure they had to get the Hokage to sign off on it. But it wasn’t their first time at the rodeo and she was sure the experience with Lee just the year prior streamlined the process.

When her team was finally announced, Sakura looked meekly up at Ino. She wasn’t expecting this outcome. Ino just stared back at her, unimpressed. With what, who knows. Life? Probably life.

Ino and Sakura had come to the conclusion that no matter what Ino did, she was going to be stuck on a team with Chouji and Shikamaru. Hell, Ino’s dad admitted to planning the pregnancies to coincide with the other parents. Ino-Shika-Chou was a staple team of Konoha.

Ino sighed but accepted it. She already trained with the knuckle-heads for years, so she knew it wouldn’t be the worst situation.

However, neither of them predicted Sakura’s scenario. It’s been years since Sakura has been in the top spots in class. Her written work was still phenomenal as well as her taijutsu. She was very good at keeping form. It was all the chakra practical exams that held her back.

Iruka kind of explained her placement with Sasuke and Naruto when Naruto made a big hubbub about being placed with Sasuke. Sakura was kind of glad for it since she didn’t want to ask. Sasuke was at the top of the class, Naruto was at the bottom. That made sense.

Sakura was a sort of exception. The middle ground, she supposed, to even it all out.

Iruka, however, disagreed. He commended her on her mental and physical prowess.

Sakura felt warm at the compliments. Thank you, Iruka-sensei, she wanted to scream out. Some of her classmates still made comments about her even after years of her hard work. Ino and her just started snapping back in retaliation. With Iruka’s words, she wanted to tell them to shove it.

She did feel kind of bad, though, because the compliments were kind of backhanded towards Naruto. She did agree he was a terrible student with no skills, but she wasn’t good with chakra either, so she couldn’t judge him on that. What she could judge him for was his attitude and his delinquency.

“Naruto, I’m sure it will be fine,” she tried to placate him from her spot between the two glaring boys. He wasn’t paying attention to her, though, so she hit his shoulder. “Knock it off!”

“You each have some powerful skills, Naruto,” Iruka continued his explanation when Naruto finally simmered down thanks to Sakura’s punch. “I’m sure if you work together, you’ll all see your own skills only become better.”

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and then it went by boringly. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were just waiting and waiting for whoever their new teacher was supposed to be. When he finally did show up, they weren’t impressed. He didn’t seem to be impressed by them either, though, so she guessed it was all fair.

They did a little meet and greet and gave self-introductions and expectations. Sakura was sure to say that while she liked training, she hated training just as much. You get nowhere fast, she explained when she got stares, but when the outcomes shine through, you feel it was all worth it. You just have to endure, she said with a smile.

Kakashi eyed her, wondering if he should tell her that she really does resemble her little friend on Gai’s team. He decided against it, thinking about what if she misunderstood and thought he was comparing their looks. A girly-girl like her probably wouldn’t take to that thought kindly.

Instead he just moved on and told them to show up ready to throw down tomorrow. He read their files and knew their strengths. He decided to test them on the three ninja arts while also making them understand teamwork. Hopefully.

Sasuke would get a rundown on genjutsu because while he was good at ninjutsu and taijutsu, he was an Uchiha and should get more experience in that field. Naruto would partake in a ninjutsu lesson which he wasn’t super skilled at, but thanks to the debacle the other night, it was clear he would be good if he applied himself. And Sakura would get a challenge with her taijutsu.

He would learn their limits and adapt their training to it. That is, if they passed his test at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they did pass. Suck it, Kakashi, and welcome to the super best friends forever group.
> 
> Ino is trying to be a wingman. Sakura and Lee are sort of too dense to see that. Don't worry, Ino, you'll succeed one day. We're all proud of you.


	6. Change is Not Always Cataclysmic

It was the first day of the chuunin exams and Sakura was both nervous and excited. She walked into the academy grounds with Naruto and Sasuke. She was telling herself that going to walk in there and she was going to conquer. She trained a lot for this for years.

They were stepping off the first flight of stairs to get to the first exam when all three of them noticed a crowd by a door in the middle of the hallway. They walked over there, curious. Sasuke mumbled to both of them that there was a genjutsu. Sakura didn’t know if Naruto was listening since he seemed to be more curious of the commotion than whatever came out of Sasuke’s mouth, but Sakura was going to keep in mind that there was an illusion of some sort here.

The moment they got to the edge of the crowd, she spotted Lee on the ground. She blinked confused. And then she ran forth without a single hesitation to help him.

“Lee, are you okay?” She asked, grabbing his arm. She then looked up to glare at the two boys standing in front of the classroom. She had no clue as to why they were guarding this room since they were only on the second floor, but she wasn’t going to let them bully Lee. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Ah, another kid who has no idea what she’s getting into,” the boy said. She heard Lee say her name behind her. He was probably shocked she was here. She was surprised he was here, too. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he’d be here, but she had a lot of other things on her mind. She didn’t know she was going to be here herself until yesterday anyways. “You best give up now.”

Sasuke stepped up and called the guys out for the genjutsu and that caused the boy to get annoyed and attack him. Sasuke was going to counterattack, but suddenly Lee stood, shaking himself out of her hold, and got in between them before she could even blink.

Lee has grown even more since she last saw him, she demurely thought as she watched him stop their kicks without a sweat. She couldn’t even compare herself to him at this rate. What was she doing with her time? She wondered if he was holding back during the few training sessions they had because he certainly wasn’t at this speed before.

The situation deescalated, and the crowd started to disperse. Now that people knew they were on the wrong floor, they decided to move on. The two boys who were guarding the door decided to run off. Lee stepped away from Sasuke and was pulled aside two people – his team, Sakura supposed.

Lee spoke softly with his teammates for a moment as she walked over to hers, deep in thought.

“How do you know that weirdo, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked, gaining her full attention. She just ticked a brow down in response before crossing her arms.

“He’s not a weirdo,” she countered, very annoyed. “He’s my friend, Rock Lee.”

Sasuke made a noise, watching the other team. Lee kept looking in her direction and now his teammates were also staring at them. “How did you meet him?”

“We were friends in the academy. He graduated before us.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke sized him up. Whatever conclusions they came to were not privy to Sakura, but she didn’t care that much. Lee walked over to her suddenly. Both of his teammates seemed annoyed.

“Sakura!” Lee called her loudly, even though they were only a few feet away now. His eyebrows were pulled down in concentration. All of it was on her.

“Yes?” she asked, blinking.

“Lee, we don’t have time for this,” the girl moaned from the sideline. That was Tenten, Sakura’s memory supplied. Lee just looked at her, completely serious.

“I’ll join you upstairs soon.”

“Ugh, fine. Come on, Neji,” she replied and turned around. Neji looked at Sakura for a moment, then at Sasuke, and then walked off with Tenten.

Lee turned back to Sakura with a smile.

“I have trained to become strong in this past year as I sure you have as well,” Lee said, his hands tightly at his side, his eyes only on her. She heard Naruto mumbled something to himself, but she ignored him.

“Huh?” Sakura replied, feeling a little stupid. She was just telling herself that she wasn’t doing enough just a second ago, so this conversation topic felt like a whiplash. No matter, he was waiting for a reply. And even if the outcome of her training wasn’t as clear as his, she definitely had tried hard. “Ah, yes I have.”

He grinned and his cheeks reddened a bit. “I’m glad to hear!” He shifted his weight on his feet back and forth a little before continuing to speak. “Sakura, we have been friends for a long time, right?”

She nodded in response. 

“I’ve, um, I’ve come to realize how much I respect and adore you.”

Oh. Oh! Sakura’s cheeks suddenly reddened, too. Was this what she thought it was? She suddenly got very nervous. She didn’t know how to respond. A lot of people were still milling around, watching this situation as well. She hoped they were amusing themselves. Naruto and Sasuke were looking on, confused. Lee carried on, though, undeterred (if a little nervous) as usual. That was his charm, wasn’t it?

“I wish to protect you, fight alongside you, and”-his blush deepened and she heard a snicker somewhere in the audience-“be with you.”

Sakura was screaming inside. This was so cute and she was so unprepared. Really super unprepared for this. She trained a lot and thought about all sorts of situations she would face at the exams, but this was never one of them. What was she supposed to do? Where was Ino when you needed her?

Lee brought one of his fists up in a gesture of his passion (eek! That word!) and said: “If I become a chuunin at the end of these exams, will you go out with me?”

Sakura face felt like it was on fire.

Naruto yelled “What!?” but was ignored. He was causing a fuss on the sidelines and Sasuke stopped him from jumping between the two.

Sure, she knew he liked her while they were in the academy together. It made her feel good, pretty, and strong. Even Ino was quick to point it out. She never thought hard about her feelings towards him, though, other than appreciating him as a friend and ally. It was always something she would end up pushing away to think about later when the thoughts got too serious and later never came.

To be honest with herself, though, she was incredibly happy right now. She couldn’t deny it that she thought very well of him for a long time. When she did think about the possibilities during some sleepless nights, she just assumed it would never come to pass. He would move on. She would move on. She labeled it a childhood whim.

But it wasn’t that, was it? Lee and Sakura pushed each other and inspired each other and, and, and…

“Alright,” Sakura said, suddenly with a nod. His face brightened considerably, and his posture sank in relief. She then smirked and challenged him back: “But only if I also become one.”

“I am sure you will,” Lee responded, proud of her. They smiled at each other, determined eyes staring straight.

Then the atmosphere suddenly shifted and they both turned away from each other, turning into emotional, blushing messes. Sakura giggled awkwardly, unable to look at him anymore. Lee rubbed the back of his head. After a moment, he turned back, grin still big on his face.

“I shall see you, and your teammates inside,” he said. He nodded at Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto’s jaw was hitting the floor and he didn’t respond to any stimuli, but Sasuke quickly wiped the shocked look on his face and glared back. They both sized each other up for a moment before Lee looked back at Sakura. “I am excited to see what you all bring to the table.”

Sakura nodded back, excited for what would come. And in her heart and mind, was ready to put her entire life on the table to complete the new promise they made together. They would become chuunin together and then… eek!

In the end, neither of them became chuunin. The exams were full of tough events that Sakura had trouble parsing through. The written exam flew by like a breeze and then everything started tumbling downhill. 

Her teammates got hurt in the Forest of Death due to some ridiculously strong man by the name of Orochimaru and Sakura was left to defend them. It was a harsh few hours, but Lee came to help her fend off some guys from the Sound Village. Sakura couldn’t thank him enough. They both awkwardly blushed at the end of it when it was safe to say their goodbyes and Lee jumped off to join his team again.

After the five days in the Forest of Death, they had to fight one-on-ones. She won the preliminary against Ino. It was a difficult fight. Ino was wickedly smart in her strategy and Sakura was worried for a while, but she wasn’t a match to Sakura’s strength. Sakura got her in a hold that Ino couldn’t break out of until Ino had to forfeit. They had started the battle with promising that no matter what happened, there would be no hard feelings. That said, Ino was adamant that Sakura owed her a chocolate sundae from their favorite ice cream parlor after this.

Lee congratulated her when the two girls walked back up to the balcony. Ino blamed him for the outcome and then walked to her team, leaving a shocked Lee and a laughing Sakura.

They stood together, watching the rest of the matches until it was his turn.

It took Kakashi pulling at her collar to stop her from jumping in to help him. Lee left in a stretcher. Sakura’s mind was elsewhere as the preliminaries concluded.

It was shortly after Kakashi told her and Naruto that he set them up with tutors that Sakura took off to visit Lee. She stopped off at Ino’s to pick up some flowers. She told Ino about what had happened the first day of the exam, something she hadn’t been confident in being able to say succinctly before.

Ino just thought for a moment with a frown. Then, rung up her flowers and smirked. “Well? What are you going to do now?”

And Sakura thought about it all the way to the hospital until she standing outside the door to Lee’s room.

She took a breath and entered with a smile.

“Lee!” She called, only for her voice to cut out at his expression.

He was crying and from his appearance had been for awhile. He propped up in his bed with a few pillows supporting his back. His leg was raised up with some supports and his limbs were wrapped. Seeing her, he suddenly turned his face away and started wiping the tears furiously.

“Ah, um,” he stuttered out. “Hello, Sakura!” He turned back, eyes red and puffy. His smile was dim and fake in comparison to his usual attitude.

Sakura’s heart sank deeper and she regretted trying to come in with a cheery attitude.

She walked over to his bed and without speaking and began to set up the flowers she brought. She came with a nice vase from home. Lee watched her silently for a moment before looking down at his hands in his lap. After making the flowers look nice, she turned towards him and sat in the visitor chair next to the bed.

“It’s hard, huh?”

Lee’s eyes teared up again and he did nothing to stop them from falling. He nodded solemnly a few times.

“Lee, I don’t want you to give up your dream, okay? It’s, it’s my dream, too,” Sakura said. She put her hand over his, and leaned forward, sticking her face lower so she could meet his gaze. “It’s tough, but we’ll make it through this okay?”

Lee looked at her, his eyebrows wound up and his face wet with tears. It wasn’t an attractive look, but it was so important to her. He was important to her. His dreams, his conviction, his kindness, his silliness. All of what made Lee tick was so admirable to her.

“So,” she said, looking down at their hands, suddenly nervous. Her face felt hot. “I want to be with you through thick and thin. You said you wanted to protect me. I want to protect you, too.”

Lee sputtered, his thoughts suddenly shifted.

“Do you- what?”

“Lee, will you go out with me?” Sakura said quickly, afraid that if hesitated she would chicken out. “I mean, you don’t have to say-“

“Yes!” Lee yelled in response and his tears started falling again. It relieved Sakura to see that they were tears of happiness this time and he lifted his good arm to pull her into a hug.

The doctors said that Lee would probably never be a ninja again, but Sakura was told that same thing when she was younger, so she wasn’t going to listen to the worst possible outcome. And if Lee taught her one thing, it was that nothing was impossible.

Sakura visited him every day. As he healed more, she helped him do simple stretches with his good arm and leg. It was basic physical therapy that coincided with what the hospital already provided. She spent a lot of time at the library looking up as much information as she could.

Lee was unhappy with the muscle mass he was losing as time went on, but Sakura admonished him every time she caught him trying to exercise like he used to. She would bring the books she checked out and bop him lightly over the head. It would cause more hurt than good if he worked like that for now, she would say, and he slowly stopped trying.

She brushed past his teammates a few times, but she was mostly alone when she visited him. His teacher was very… strange to talk to at first, but his values matched up with her own and so she thought he was a good person to teach Lee. She understood how much he did for him.

She wondered if he would teach her sometime, too. She definitely needed the help to catch up with her boyfriend. Speaking of which, Gai started crying when he found out. He walked in on them holding hands and put a whole show on which caused them to get really embarrassed and really happy at the same time. 

They ate lunch together most days before Sakura had to meet her tutor. She was wondering if she should just forfeit the exams at this point. Becoming a chuunin wasn’t her top priority now and if she wasn’t working for that, should she even try this year? Lee kept telling her to work hard, but she wasn’t so sure. She kept her tutoring appointments in the end just to see how far she could push herself. If she failed, that would be okay.

Whatever happened, she’d be with one of her best friends and that’s all that mattered. Even when her other best friend kept hooting about her relationship whenever she saw her. She could deal with that, too.

She decided that her hard work got her here and she would put in even more work to make it stay this happy. As long as she kept moving, she would break through any challenge. If they stayed together, that just meant they were twice as tough.

The day of the finals, she said goodbye to Lee at the hospital. He said he would make it out to watch her round no matter what. They said goodbye with a smile and both started preparing for the challenges ahead of them. Apart, yet together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then the fire nation attacked.
> 
> Insert Gaara looming in the background, trying and failing to find Lee alone at any time of day. Dammit, Sakura!
> 
> Anyways, enough of that. We come to a close.
> 
> I do want to say that Sakura can use her chakra and she still has a natural affinity towards using it. But as the nurses in the first chapter said, she can't access it the same way and if she tried to increase the size of her reserves, she would have a lot of problems. In this case, Sakura's body blocked the genjutsu without her even knowing just because Sasuke said to look out for it. 
> 
> Maybe after Tsunade comes home, she can help Sakura understand her body's limits better.
> 
> But that is a story for another time, and one I will probably never write.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed your time reading this story because I wrote this all within 24 hours in a flight of passion and I certainly enjoyed writing it. Have a great day!


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